Human rights groups up anti-Gonzales campaign

[JURIST] High-profile New York-based monitoring group Human Rights Watch [advocacy website] has broken from its practice of not directly endorsing or opposing Cabinet nomineees to issue a formal statement opposing the nomination of White House counsel Alberto Gonzales [JURIST Newsmaker] for the post of US Attorney General. HRW said in a press release Monday that it had serious reservations about the nominee, suggesting that his testimony before the Senate earlier this month showed a "continuing willingness to bend the law in service of a desired policy outcome, rather than an unbending commitment to respecting the law." The Gonzales nomination is also opposed by the lawyers group Human Rights First [advocacy website], which recently publicized a letter [PDF] to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Arlen Specter from several Hispanic law professors opposing the nomination. Read an associated Human Rights First press release. AFP has more. In a statement prior to Gonzales Senate hearing Amnesty International said however that that organization "takes no position on the appointment of individual nominees, however the organization believes that as nominee for Attorney General, the role of Mr. Gonzales in developing US policy on torture deserves close and careful scrutiny." Real the full AI release.

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